Published February 4 2015
The City Council on Monday heard about progress to update Bellevue's Comprehensive Plan and learned that a draft of the plan will be available for review and comment beginning next week.
The Comprehensive Plan is the citywide policy document that captures the community's vision and guides Bellevue's approach to growth and development over a 20-year planning horizon. The state-mandated plan was last updated in 2004.
The draft Comp Plan officially will be released to the public on February 11. The release will kick off an intense public outreach effort and several weeks of reviews and revisions. Opportunities for the public to comment on the draft release will include:
- Feb. 13 to March 3: An "online open house" website (starting Feb. 13) will include a copy of the plan and provide visitors a convenient way to participate and give feedback. Printed copies of the plan will be available at Bellevue libraries and at City Hall;
- Feb. 25: Open house and joint boards and commissions meeting, 5-7 p.m., City Hall, 450 110th Ave. NE;
- Feb. 26: Open house, 5-7 p.m., Interlake High School, 16245 NE 24th St.;
- March 4: Planning Commission public hearing, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, followed by further deliberations on March 11, 18 and 25; and
- April 6, 13, 27 and May 11 (tentative dates): City Council reviews draft prior to adopting final Comprehensive Plan, possibly by June 15.
Completion of the draft document follows public outreach that began in 2013 with a "Best Ideas" effort that drew hundreds of comments about how Bellevue should plan for the future. A key objective of the update is to make the plan more accessible and usable, so that it remains an effective planning tool.
The Comp Plan addresses a broad range of city issues, such as growth and changing demographics, transportation, affordable housing and homelessness, environmental stewardship, and economic development. New to the 2015 draft is a neighborhood section that reinforces the importance of quality neighborhoods and provides an easier way to search the plan for related policies.
More information from the meeting on Monday is available.
Agreement on new emergency radio system
Also on Monday, the council approved agreements with King County and several communication agencies to replace a countywide emergency radio system with a new system. The King County Council could decide as early as this month whether to place a property tax measure on the April 28 ballot to pay for the system.
The radio system is used for communications across King County between police, fire and emergency medical services. School districts, transportation agencies, utilities and hospitals also use it. Officials say the vendor for the radio system, which uses technology that’s 30 years, will no longer service the equipment after 2018.
King County, the lead agency for the replacement project, puts the replacement cost at approximately $245.8 million, and has proposed a countywide property tax levy to fund it. If approved by voters, the measure would cost 7 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value over nine years, or $35 annually for the owner of a home valued at $500,000.
Bellevue manages its emergency radio services through the Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency, which is made up of Eastside cities. With the council's action Monday, all of those cities now have approved the county's plan to replace the emergency radio network.
More information is available with the agenda materials online.